I’ve completed videos about all of Farscape’s major characters and the major species that appear in the original series. Yet, there’s another significant presence in the show that I haven’t touched on.
That is the ship that appears prominently in the show: the mysterious ship that D’Argo calls “Lo’la.” It isn’t a living ship like Moya and Talyn, but Lo’la plays a significant enough role in the grand story arc that I consider it a character.
Lo’la enters the Farscape story in “Suns and Lovers.”
<first appearance clip>
It appears from nowhere, a derelict, but intact ship. Someone flew it to the commerce station near the twin suns of Qel. Who it’s former owner was is part of the mystery.
D’Argo takes an immediate interest in the ship. < familiar to me clip >
Later we learn why.
< activates clip >
Ancient Luxan? We know so little about Luxan history, though Chiana mentions in that episode that most Luxans had only learned to read and write within the past 300 cycles. And yet here is this ship, with highly advanced technology, programmed with an ancient language.
This raises some big questions. Did the Luxans hundreds, maybe thousands, of cycles ago have technology more advanced than the Peacekeepers or Scarrans? That seems to be the case, because Lo’la can cloak, has strong weaponry, <destroying rogue leviathan clip> advanced sensors, and advanced command and control functions. <D’Argo calls Lo’la> But if Luxans had ships like these in their ancient times, why don’t they have them now? D’Argo had no knowledge of such a ship or anything like it. He was in the Luxan military so wouldn’t he have at least an inkling about such a craft if it was at all still in use?
If ships like Lo’la aren’t used by the current Luxan military than who was using it? Someone flew it to the commerce station near the twin suns of Qel. Someone had kept that ship in excellent condition. And it’s a small attack ship similar to a Peacekeeper prowler or marauder, so someone probably wasn’t living on it or using it to haul cargo. They must have been living near by. A lone Luxan living in the Uncharted Territories? An Orican perhaps? Someone from an ancient spiritual order would conceivably have an ancient spaceship. Not sure why they’d need a high-tech fighter craft, but hey, what do we know about Luxans much less Oricans?
I like the Orican theory, but one more fact that we learn puzzles me. That’s Jenek’s revelation at the beginning of “We’re So Screwed, Part 3.”
<Jenek on Lo’la clip>
Lo’la is an Eradicator, Toproktin design. The Scarrans know what this ship is, and what’s more, they know how to control it. Why would Scarrans know about ancient Luxan technology? There’s a big back story there.
Moving from speculation back to our story in the original series, what truly makes Lo’la an interesting and important character is its effect on D’Argo. Lo’la comes into D’Argo’s life at the same time that Chiana and Jothee betray him. As I mentioned in my video on D’Argo, he took solace in Lo’la to deal with his hurt and anger. He perhaps grew too fixated on Lo’la <attacks Crichton clip>
Yes, Lo’la was his solace to deal with hurt and disappointment. That the ship was Luxan helped him connect to his heritage and help him deal with his exile. The ship becomes D’Argo’s link with a happier past, as evidenced by the name he gives it.
<I named her clip>
Lo’la brings them back to Moya and becomes part of the Moya family, helping them out of several jams.
What Lo’la is and where it came from will forever be a mystery, but it was a fun ship and character.